IND vs PAK: India won their ninth Asia Cup trophy as they beat Pakistan in the final on Sunday in Dubai, doing a 3-0 over Salman Agha’s side in this edition of the tournament.
But while the previous two wins were comfortable, this one went down to the wire, and at one point, Pakistan even had the upper hand.
India began their chase of 147 on a disastrous note, losing the in-form Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Suryakumar Yadav for the score of only 20 runs in four overs as Faheem Ashraf and Shaheen Afridi cleverly used the variation deliveries.
Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma brought India some control with a partnership of 57 runs off 50 balls before the right-hander was caught at point off Abrar Ahmed.
Another partnership for India was forged between Varma, who held his end, reaching his half-century off 41 balls, and Shivam Dube, who blasted two sixes and a four to bring the equation down to 17 runs required off the last 12 balls.
Faheem got pulled for a four by Dube, but the left-hander was caught at long-on on the last ball of the over, leaving India needing 10 off the last six deliveries. With the tension palpable and eight runs needed off five balls, Varma pulled Rauf for a six on the second delivery of the over to all but seal the win. Varma remained unbeaten on 69 off 53 balls.
Earlier, Pakistan, with the bat, had a boom followed by a bust. Sahibzada Farhan continued his upper hand over Jasprit Bumrah from the Super Four fixture, cracking the Indian spearhead pacer for two fours and a six in his two powerplay overs.
Pakistan ended the powerplay at 45/0. In the next 3.3 overs, Farhan and Zaman launched the Indian spinners for three sixes and a four. However, Pakistan then suffered a mighty collapse from thereon.
Varun Chakaravarthy dismissed Farhan for 57(38). Kuldeep and Axar, too, made dents, dismissing Saim Ayub and Mohammad Haris in the 13th and 14th overs, respectively.
Zaman tonked Chakaravarthy for a sixer over long-on, but the Indian mystery spinner had the last laugh as the left-hander miscued to backward point. Zaman scored 46 off 35 balls. In the next over, Axar got rid of Hussain Talat.
In the 17th over, bowled by Kuldeep, Pakistan’s innings derailed completely as they lost three wickets, those of Salman Agha, Shaheen Afridi, and Faheem Ashraf. The over yielded three wickets for India and only one run for Pakistan, which came off a wide delivery.
Bumrah claimed the last two wickets, completing another famous Pakistani collapse—from 113/1 to 146 all out. Pakistan lost their last nine wickets for only 33 runs. Where once they looked to touch 200, they couldn’t even get to 150.
This victory fired up the Indian fans on Twitter, who expressed their emotions in various forms. Even India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the team, invoking Operation Sindoor.
Modi tweeted: “#OperationSindoor on the games field. Outcome is the same – India wins! Congrats to our cricketers”
IND vs PAK: Twitter Reactions To India’s Win In Epic Asia Cup Final
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